


Signs

by RevMarsh



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sgrub Session, Gen, Westernstuck AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-28
Updated: 2012-12-28
Packaged: 2017-11-22 17:40:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/612467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RevMarsh/pseuds/RevMarsh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanaya is a wandering auspictice in a non-SGRUB, Western AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Signs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



Night was still some time off when she saw the first circle of rocks marking the eastern-most homestead. Here in the deeper desert, few trolls could sustain interest, or bear the climate, in growing anything but the scrubbiest of plants. The stones marked out a ghostly imitation of the necessary lawn-ring, one of the few aesthetic achievements of most trolls. Kanaya closed her eyes and cast her right hand over the circle, mentally filling the space with greenery. Had it been anything but the bright part of the day she'd have felt ashamed and secretive, but by the fifth or sixth time this had become an automatic ritual, a little luck-charm for prosperous work in the town, no matter how small or failed it seemed on arrival. 

Ignoring her ministrations, the hoofbeast stopped suddenly to gnaw on something. She readjusted herself on the saddle and smoothed his ruddy mane where she had lurched forward into it. While he chomped irregularly at the low succulents, she looked beyond the first lawn-ring into the settlement. Even farther in the distance were the beginnings of a low mountain range, but the world until then was the ashy dead color of most Alternian deserts. She idly wondered if she had seen most of them now, having ridden so long, now so far from her own emerald oasis in her rusty land. Perhaps this, where the mountains were a paler grey fading into whiteness at the peaks, was the edge of the world - metaphorically, of course. Kanaya could imagine that her home had been the center of the world, where color came from, and by the time it spread out into the land it had been spread thinly, then run out just about where this town was.

This grandiose theory had been seeping into her thinkpan over the sweeps, and it embarrassed her more than mystically waving her hands over dead rock and wishing for plants. 

At this hour, and with so little shade from the desolate landscape, it was unlikely that anyone would be awake. Like many of the less-small places she had stopped for some time, a few larger hive compounds lay outside the formal border between 'town' and 'not-town.' The real line was made of a single heavily shaded tower and sand-dulled razor wire. These poorer hives on the outskirts had no wire fences, but she respected the stone lawn-circles for the potential for hidden traps below the scree. 

On her way in, she had seen none of the broad rock shelters customarily made by daywalking monstrosities; the last billowing tents of the increasingly rare rainbow drinkers had been far away, on the east side of the great river of this continent. The light of the sun was one thing, but she wondered if out here, with so few trolls, and those made more wary and dangerous from their harsh living conditions, the wiser beasts of the day forsook these small settlements. 

She took a risk being confused with them, travelling like she did. She nudged the beast forward and slowly spiraled into the town. 

Towards the western edge, a slight rise created a natural border, and on that side, more substantial buildings formed a nucleus. As she rode, she saluted the hidden guard who may or may not be watching in the tower. They weren’t always occupied, especially in the smaller places. Turning inwards and towards the ridge, she saw that one small hill had been incorporated into the municipal boundaries. The wooden frame and platform of a gallows waited there, closer to the center of town than was usually considered in good taste. 

It was empty, and not gouty with dried blood, or at least, not so much she could see it from here. Reflexively, Kanaya sniffed the air. She smelled dust, the burnt-air smell that clouded the drier valleys and flatlands of this part of the planet, but not a recent execution. Nothing flapped ominously in the air. 

She weaved her beast between the smooth clay buildings, approaching the empty plaza she knew by now would serve as a marketplace on the proper night. The hoofbeast hesitated when he clattered onto the hard-baked surface; Kanaya reined him in when she looked down and saw the colors. 

"Now," she said, dismounting carefully and patting his neck. "We Will Find You A Place To Rest." Her feet stumbled on the unfamiliar ground, her gaze locked onto the red and green and blue chalk hieroglyphs on the grey mud tile plaza. She forced herself to her task, tying her sole companion to a hoofbeast-respite-securement device in the shade. She peered in the trough and nodded at the lack of grub nodules. He drank as she sorted through the satchels he carried, looking for a particular notebook. 

Kanaya would never admit that it was a practiced dramatic gasp, nor that it was wasted to be heard only by herself and her four-hoofed beast. Between the pages and the new find, this was the tenth similar set of signs she had found. She flipped to a blank sheet and started to copy the new design.

"Our new visitor smells like sunshine and unhealthiness," someone said too loudly. Kanaya improvised a less-refined noise of surprise as a shadow fell across the design. "Don't even think about it," the small troll barked. She held a thick grey sun-blocking-device to shield her skin, but peered slightly away from Kanaya from beneath deep ruby lenses. "I can smell you thinking about it."

"I Am Unsure What I Am Thinking About," she admitted. Despite this, when she spoke, each word was distinct, chosen. 

"You're thinking about standing up! Don't!"

"My Name Is Kanaya Maryam," she said, placing the paper and pen down. She showed her empty palms to the newcomer. "I Am A Travelling Auspistice."

The shaded figure flashed a smile at the hoofbeast. "Nope! Move on, rainbow drinker!"

Two sweeps ago she would be flattered by the misrecognition; now she frowned and fingered the collapsed chainsaw at her hip. "I See Your Town Enjoys Justice," Kanaya began. "Perhaps I Could Assist In..."

"Justice isn't glowy-shiny," she frowned. "And we don't need auspisticizing. Just the law."

"Which, I Take It, You Mete Out." 

Her laugh startled Kanaya, the sharp, alive character so out of place in the desiccated town. "Tell me, Maryam, why you're copying my drawings, and maybe I'll give you time to get on your beasty and ride out while it's still hot."

A hundred questions fought for the privilege of being asked. She wanted to fight this lawgiver with word and claw, and she smiled, feeling alive again for the first time in nearly three sweeps. "I Have Seen These Elsewhere." She started to reach for the book. "May I?"

"What?"

"Show You?" She took the other's moment of hesitation to lift the book close to her face, making sure she moved it enough to ripple the still air. By this time she had more than reasonable doubt. “Or However You Sense Things.”

Terezi sniffed hard, then flipped between the pages, sniffing again and again, her tongue sticking out as she concentrated. Kanaya sensed the other's bloodpusher speed up, and bit her own lip. Something stirred deep within her, something that her own still bloodpusher did not prevent from moving.

"So I'm not the only one who's seen it coming." She was not smiling anymore.

"I Cannot Say. I Just Note There Are Many Similar In Other Towns."

"Terezi Pyrope. I'm the law here." She shoved the book vaguely in the direction of Kanaya's hands. "Looks like we got to have a little talk tonight, rainbow drinker."

"Can I Set Up Camp Within Your Wires?"

"You can stay in the jail. Ain't no one there right now. I won't even lock you in." The smile was back. She gestured towards a large building across from the plaza. 

 

“I Feel That I Should Correct You On Your Assessment,” Kanaya said as she began to follow. She’d untied her hoofbeast and began to walk with it between her and the lawgiver. “I Am No Drinker. Just Someone In The Sun.”

Terezi walked silently for a moment, her free hand light on the beast’s flank. Her shade cast a wide shadow, enveloping her faded clothing in grey, covering all but the faintest teal tones in her uniform shirt. “I saw the sun once,” she said, very quietly. 

“Would You Like To Talk About It?” 

“It was a trick,” she said. It was unusual already for Kanaya to hear this boisterous troll, about her age, who had shown almost too much energy for a normal troll in daytime, speak quietly. It demanded attention. “And I think the one responsible is also responsible for this.” Terezi pointed backwards towards the plaza. 

Kanaya glanced across the beast and saw the other biting her lip, her small, pointed horns bobbing up and down as she nodded to herself. They had brought the animal to a stable and secured it from the burning sunlight and were inside the cool dimness of the town hall before either spoke again.

“What Do You Draw, Terezi Pyrope?”

“Cracks,” she replied. “The same one who did this to me is cracking the whole sky, and only the very special can see it.” Terezi grinned again, her teeth as pointed as her horns, small and demanding. “I don’t think she realized by blinding me she made me see what she would do since then!” 

“Who Is She?”

“You know her,” Terezi said. She felt for the doorknob; opening the door, she leaned on it and swung a little, back and forth. Kanaya breathed out. It would not do to get brought in to this situation more than needed. “You want to auspistice, you get between me and Serket.” The stairwell was unlit, Kanaya concentrating on each stair as she felt it below her feet. “Once you lead me to the ocean to find her.”

The auspistice sighed, pausing for a moment on what felt like a landing. “You Want Me,” she said, reaching out a hand for Terezi’s arm, “To Find One Of The Most Notorious Sea-Brigands. Ever.”

“From the desert. Prove yourself, Maryam.” She flipped a coin idly between her palms and the backs of her hands. “Be a real travelling auspistice.”

The generic recuperacoon in the cell was servicable, once she scooped out a few engulfed beetles. Kanaya rested with her back against it and waited for Terezi to continue. She held onto the door, running her hand across the bars, seemingly deep in thought. She gazed up as if she was following a track from the stars, like she could see the crack a few had claimed crossed the sky in the time between day and night. 

Finally, she breathed out, and asked. "Is This Revenge?" 

Terezi's laugh echoed in the basement cellblock. "Of course! But who knows what more!" She leaned forward, pressing a hand to Kanaya's chin, and inhaled. "You're gonna lead me across the desert."


End file.
